Re:Orientations

Directed by Richard Fung

Re:Orientations

Description

Filmmaker Richard Fung explores the evolution of LGBTQIA voices in his documentary, RE:ORIENTATIONS. The film is a follow-up to his 1984 documentary, ORIENTATIONS: LESBIAN AND GAY ASIANS, which was the first to feature perspectives of LGBTQIA Asians in North America and told the stories of 14 men and women living in Toronto. RE:ORIENTATIONS connects past and present by blending interviews from ORIENTATIONS with new footage with many of the first film’s subjects.

The extraordinary treasure in RE:ORIENTATIONS is the subjects’ reflections on their original footage and how they have grown through non-traditional trajectories and networks. Fung delicately explores their experiences with identity, feminism, racism, marriage equality, spirituality and the AIDS crisis while examining generational shifts and trends in community, politics, acceptance and visibility.

Fung injects new blood into the contemporary side of the film as well, bringing in perspectives of six younger LGBTQIA artists, activists and scholars. The result is a deliciously diverse potpourri of voices that merges fresh and enlightened perspectives on queer and trans Asians.

Preceded By

An oblique portrait of gay Japanese American actor Sab Shimono, whose work on stage and screen spans more than five decades. The grammatology of his career attests to conflicting lexicons of race, representation, and selfhood.